June 23, 2007

Top Dems Best GOP Candidates In Newsweek Poll

With all necessary caveats attached, here is the latest Newsweekpoll of the top 2008 candidates. The reasons I consider this post-worthy are as follows: 1) it's a slow news day and 2) remarks like this one. The poll shows Senator Hillary Clinton beating the top four top GOP candidates. The same is true for Barack Obama and John Edwards. That should be enough to silence the constant questioning by the media of the various Democratic candidates' "electability." But don't count on it.

Interestingly, the poll also reveals that when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is factored into the race, he subtracts about equally from the Democratic and Republican totals. Republicans will cite the poll's large seven point margin of error and the fact that more Democrats were polled than Republicans as reasons to disregard the results. And they may have a point. But I consider the poll relevant for two reasons. First of all, it shows Hillary Clinton with strong support among Democrats, polling as well as, or better than, Obama and Edwards in every senario amongst "blue state" voters. This counters the myth that Clinton is unpopular with the Democratic base, despite being booed by a few people at the Take Back America conference. Secondly, with regard to the number of Democrats vs. Republicans being polled, the latest Pew Research Center data shows clearly that, right now, there are simply more people out there willing to identify themselves as Democrats than those who will label themselves members of the GOP.